Syncing Your Training with Your Menstrual Cycle — Does It Really Work?

By Professor Kirsty Elliot-Sale

Key Points

• There is no strong evidence to justify tailoring entire training programmes to menstrual cycle phases.

• Individual experiences and symptoms matter — adapt training through autoregulation when necessary.

• Body literacy helps athletes anticipate and manage cycle-related challenges.

• Effective training is driven by sport-specific demands and long-term goals, not ovarian hormone shifts.

Introduction

You have probably heard the advice to “train with your cycle,” but does it actually hold up? The short answer: not in the way you might think.

What Science Says About Training and the Menstrual Cycle

Your training should always be grounded in the core principles of effective programming — specificity, progressive overload, recovery, and aligning with the physical demands of your sport.

Currently, there is not enough high-quality scientific evidence to justify structuring your entire training plan around the phases of the menstrual cycle for physiological reasons. In other words, your muscles and other key systems do not require special adjustments based on fluctuating levels of oestrogen or progesterone to progress.

Understanding the Menstrual Cycle and Hormones

Two key ovarian hormones — oestrogen and progesterone — play central roles in the menstrual cycle. Their levels rise and fall across the month, creating different phases:

• Phase 1 oestrogen and progesterone levels are low and menstruation occurs during this phase

• Phase 2 oestrogen levels peak just before ovulation but progesterone levels remain low

• Phase 3 is a transition phase

• Phase 4 progesterone levels peak and oestrogen has a second but lesser peak

While these patterns are often described as a “textbook cycle,” real-world cycles are far more variable and a healthy cycle can typically last from 21-35 days, as the graphic below shows). Even women with regular periods may not always ovulate or may experience short luteal phases, meaning hormone levels can differ significantly from one cycle to the next.

Research shows that the variability between individuals — and even within the same woman across different months — is greater than any consistent effect of hormones on performance. This is why simply counting days cannot reliably capture what is happening to oestrogen and progesterone levels. Direct measurements (such as blood, urine, or saliva tests) are the only way to confirm whether ovulation occurred and whether progesterone levels were sufficient in the luteal phase.

Why Individual Experience Matters

That said, your individual experience of the menstrual cycle does matter.

If you encounter logistical challenges (like managing bleeding during training or competition) or symptoms that impact your performance (e.g., cramps, low energy, mood shifts), it is entirely appropriate to make short-term adjustments. This process is called autoregulation — modifying your training based on how ready or able you feel to train on a given day.

Autoregulation is not unique to women; it is a strategy used by elite male and female athletes to respond to life’s inevitable fluctuations.

Planning Ahead with Body Literacy

With solid body literacy — understanding your own menstrual cycle patterns and how they might affect you — you can often plan ahead. Instead of frequently adjusting your programme, you can proactively manage symptoms using proven interventions (such as nutrition, recovery strategies, or medical support), allowing you to stick to your sport-specific training plan.

The Key Takeaway

• You do not need to let your menstrual cycle dictate your training programme. You are fully capable of training and competing at your best on any day of the cycle.

• Your programme should continue to be driven by the demands of your sport and your long-term athletic goals — not by ovarian hormone fluctuations during the menstrual cycle.

• For coaches, this means supporting athletes with mindful strategies that prioritise individual needs, while still focusing on evidence-based training principles.

References

• Elliott-Sale, K. et al., (2025). Why we must stop assuming and estimating menstrual cycle phases in laboratory and field-based sport-related research. Sports Medicine, 55, 1339–1351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-025-02189-3

• McNulty, K. L., Elliott-Sale, et al., (2020). The effects of menstrual cycle phase on exercise performance in eumenorrheic women: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 50(10), 1813–1827.

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